Basics

To get started with In-App messages for your mobile App you will need an account on xtremepush and to have a project configured. You can login at dashboard.xtremepush.com. Once logged in if you don't have one ready to use, add a NEW project. 

If you are creating a New project you will need to enter the following details and click save to initialise your project: 

• Title: Name used to identify project on the platform, something obvious to help you find it.  
• Description: A short description of what the project is for.
• Timezone: The timezone used for analytics in the project. Important this will dictate the starting point for analytics like daily users. You can set this to the local timezone of platform users if this makes sense. Default is UTC, which is a good compromise if users are likely to be spread across different timezones. 
• Icon: Helps to identify project on the platform, use app icon to help you find it.   
  
  

Deploying the SDK

If you have already setup push notifications in your App the SDK will already be deployed and you can skip to the next section. If not you will need to integrate the SDK. Skip to the Mobile App - Notifications Quick Start Guide which has a breakdown of what is required. This includes details on how to:

• Add mobile applications to a project
• Do an Android Integration
• Do an iOS Integration

NOTE: If you want to integrate the SDK but don't want to enable notifications also read the following article on integrating with notifications disabled:

• Disabling Notifications
  
  
  

Adding Realtime Events to Trigger Messages

In-App messages are triggered by realtime events. You need at least one realtime event for example a specific page view to have an In-App message. With the SDK deployed you can add these events easily by calling a simple method in your iOS or Android App. Trigger events can be added to your App very simply using the eventHit method of the xtremepush SDK. 

//Android
mPushConnector.hitEvent("EVENT_NAME");

//iOS
[XPush hitEvent: @"EVENT_NAME"];

For more detail on events including sending single values or key, value pairs along with events check out the iOS and Android docs:

• Android Trigger Events
• iOS Trigger Events

Enabling the In-App Messaging Channel

To find out if the In-App Messaging Channel has been enabled Go to Create Campaign > In-App Message.

If you are redirected to the App Settings > Additional Channels page you will need to set In-App Messaging to Enabled and click save. 

Return to Create Campaign > In-App Message and you should now be taken to the Campaign Creation interface:

Setting Up a Message

Before you set up your first message please review our creative guidelines for In-App Messages to get an understanding of how to create professional looking messages:

• Creative Guidelines

Then provided you have set up at least one trigger event you can you are ready to setup your first campaign. Campaign setup is covered in our Platform Guide Docs:

• In-App Message Campaign

In addition to In-App messages events can also be used to trigger notifications. One common use case for these is basket or other drop-off recovery type notifications,

• Event triggered notifications
• Drop-off recovery type campaigns